Report: State of the Workforce

In a competitive global economy, acquiring the right talent quickly is mission critical for companies—and hiring external or freelance talent has become key for success. According to Forbes, "Attitudes in companies of all sizes toward freelancers are changing, as more hire high-caliber external consultants and creatives to add to the brainpower of their teams." State of the Workforce is the most comprehensive look at the pace of industry transition to a freelance and virtual workforce reality.

Nearly 75% of all hiring decision makers believe that acquiring and maintaining the right talent is a primary risk for their organization. And for more than half of the business leaders surveyed in Toptal’s State of the Workforce report, external experts hired on a freelance or temporary basis have become an integral part of their company’s success.

But hiring and managing this new workforce presents new benefits and challenges for companies who seek to blend external talent into their own internal teams. Finding the right talent can take far longer and be more challenging than expected, and managing blended teams of internal and external talent—which may include team members in diverse geographic locations—requires developing new management and communication skills.

These challenges haven’t stopped the growth of external talent and remote teams. Most business leaders surveyed expect that their companies will only increase their use of external talent and remote workers to allow their company to pivot swiftly and have more flexibility to meet the needs of their market. Discover what top business leaders think is working—and what isn’t—in Toptal’s State of the Workforce report.

Alan Fiddes, Head of Projects at Toptal and a ThoughtWorks veteran with over ten years of experience managing distributed teams, explains how building and managing remote teams can create a major competitive advantage in today’s talent marketplace.